When is "church"? Most people would probably say, "Sunday morning." But is that really the best time to hold our worship services? I'm not so sure.
I have been going back and forth on this issue for some time. Certainly Sunday morning is when people "expect" there to be a worship service. But is it the best time? Just last week we had to cancel "church" because the roads hadn't been cleared yet. If we'd had our gathering later in the day it would have been no problem. Also, perhaps the biggest reason I hear for people not attending a worship service is because it's "to early." That may or may not be the real reason, but let's face it, who doesn't want to sleep in on Sunday mornings? I know I would rather not get up at 4:52 am every Sunday.
So let's say we had church Sunday afternoon. That would just be silly. That's when football games are, or when you mow the lawn, or wash the car. So how about Sunday night? Well, you know, people have to get up early Monday and go to work, so they need to get to bed at a reasonable hour on Sunday nights.
I wonder if the best time to have "church" (meaning the gathered worship service) is on Saturday night. You could go out to eat, and then go worship. It would make for a better singles place. It would be something TO DO for many people. Or you could go to "church" and THEN go out for the evening (if you're younger). It would be a place to meet up; a place to connect and all that. But... it would have to be a little different than your average service. It would need to be something people would WANT to attend. It would need to have stuff to do before and after so people could 'mill about.' You would need to feel comfortable in any attire. You would want there to be a large "mingling area."
Well, think on this. Give me some feedback if you wouldn't mind. When do you think the best time for "church" would be? I gotta run - I'm meeting Jane for lunch.
Peace...
6 comments:
My two cents...
We (with small kids) never were more consistent with church than when we were attending a Saturday evening service. Most of our young-ish friends with kids went then, too. It's just a whole lot easier to get the kids somewhere at 6PM then 10AM. After service, we would often go to dinner or ice cream with our friends and hang out.
Many of our friends who had teenagers liked the Sat eve service, too, and the youth dept had all kinds of functions and activities for the youth then - as an alternative to hanging out in the malls or whatever they would otherwise do.
It definitely was more casual than Sunday mornings, but honestly that's easier, too, when you have small kids.
I think there people who will like/dislike it no matter when you do church, but we certainly liked Saturday evening.
Some people don't like church to be a matter of convenience, but I think if it means the difference between going and not going, which is better?
Via Christus started out on Saturday nights for the first 8 months or so. We really liked it. We met from 5-7pm and then went out to dinner together. It especially worked well for the young adults.
However, it didn't work so well for the families with teenagers who had school events and hang-out time with their friends on Saturday evenings. Plus, here in our Midwestern culture there seemed to just be this expectation that church is Sunday morning. I think there are a few people that didn't come until we started meeting on Sundays. When we were still meeting on Saturdays I think they just assumed we weren't a real church yet or something. That's a mindset that I'd like to overcome, but at the same time, I'm trying to establish a brand new church from scratch here and I can't fight the system too much (or rather, I have to pick my battles).
-Mike
Lily,
Thanks for some "veteran" input. It is interesting how some people think church almost OUGHT TO BE a hassle (inconvenient). I wonder what's up with that. Like, does that make them feel holier; or like it makes it a "sacrifice" then. I don't really think that's the kind of sacrifice the Bible talks about. Anyway... thanks for sharing!
Mike,
Yeah, we would run into the same problem here. It's that "expectations" thing. There's a cool church in Fort Wayne (c2g that started out meeting on Monday nights. Then they added a Sunday night service. They've finally added a Sunday morning too. The mental thing is hard to overcome.
Thanks for sharing!
I think someone has already done the research for you here. By that I mean churches that meet Saturday night and all day long on Sunday, with plenty of opportunities. You walk in and say "what's your most popular meeting?"
Don't ask the people at that Methodist church, though. Or the time of day for that matter.
MR,
I assume you are referring to the Catholic church here. Something us Protestants fail to realize is that people have been meeting on Saturday night for YEARS. I've actually had a frequent hankering to try to hook up with a priest for chats. God knows none of the pastors around here will talk to me (or Tom).
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